I don't want a next generation of gaming consoles

[Anayo]

Warning: self indulgently long rant ahead

Lately I've had the opportunity to play a few games with amazing cutting edge graphics and production values. These include: Bioshock, Fallout 3, Crysis and Gears of War II.

I've been playing games since about 1995. That's not as long as a lot of gaming veterans out there who go as far back as the 80's and even late 70's, but it's long enough for me to remember several cycles of graphical updates and how exciting they were. I experienced going from NES to Sega Genesis, then Sega Genesis to N64, then N64 to Gamecube, then Gamecube to the dual core PC I have right now.

With each update, games got farther away from looking like computer programs and more like films. Compare Zelda: Link to the Past with Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The latter uses camera angles, shot composition, and lighting to try and create a movie-like sense of atmosphere and mood. Granted, it's with blocky models with blurry textures rendered with 4 megabytes of RAM, but they're still at least trying to imitate film. The SNES Zelda doesn't do that at all. It can't.

In the Gamecube days it occurred to me that when I played Metroid Prime and then went and watched a movie like Spider Man, there was a difference in production values. I wondered why it wasn't possible to have that level of polish on my Gamecube, or if we'd reach a day when it could be done.

I think we're living in that day. By all accounts I should be super excited, but I'm not. I'm actually disappointed. Let me explain why.

In the 80's, processing power and memory were so limited that games had to be abstract, usually to the extent that the player had to imagine what the graphics were actually representing. In the 90's, they could display higher resolution and more colors, but it still had an “abstract, video game logic” vibe to it. Think of Doom. For some reason it always irked me that the layout of the levels in that game didn't reflect any utilitarian design for what could be a real space station. It's just kind of arbitrarily arranged corridors with neat designs that's supposed to look cool and be fun to play. Nowadays FPS's are a little more authentic and pay attention to detail. I'm not saying this makes Doom lame, it just reflects that “abstract, video game logic” where attention to detail doesn't really matter cause you're supposed to be having fun, not thinking about whether it makes sense.

Today, games are so detailed that they look almost like real life. In Bioshock, I can see little rivulets of moisture trickling down the wall, and rippling waves of heat from the barrel of my shotgun. In Fallout 3, I can see peeling paint glittering on a handrail. In Crysis I see little pock marks and cracks on the walls, and whiskers on the North Korean soldiers' faces, and shadows of individual leaves swaying in the breeze.

Aside from being insanely detailed, these games try to have movie-like, storytelling sequences in them, like rushing out of a recently landed airship into a raging battlefield ala Saving Private Ryan. They try to introduce characters that have things happen to them to make you care, and twists and turns in their plots so you'll say “woah, didn't see that coming.” Like “Would you kindly?” in Bioshock.

It would be fair to say a lot of shooters are trying to be interactive versions of Saving Private Ryan, but here's the problem: Saving Private Ryan had believable characters that made me care about what was happening to them. The soldiers have all these conversations about stuff they did back home with little believable quirks and mannerisms, like how that one soldier pretended to be asleep when his mom came home late from work and tried to spend some time with him. Or there was that other conversation where that guy talked about how right before he left home, he caught his brother getting ready to have sex with an ugly local girl, they got startled, knocked over an oil lamp, and burned the barn down. Or when they finally find Private Ryan to take him home to his mom, he's so loyal to his fellow soldiers he doesn't want to go home, which is believable. The bottom line is all those details make the rest of the shooting and mayhem matter – I mean when people died in that film I bordered on tears, cause I knew who they were and it was tragic to me when they died.

And what I want to know is, why can't video games do that? In Gears of War II I felt like I waded through hell and back. Some of the ruined, burning levels in that game looked just like a set from Saving Private Ryan. But the guys in Marcus Phoenix's squad didn't have any personal details or experience any personal change that made it matter to me more than a much prettier version of blasting ghouls in Doom. The sub plot between Dom and Maria shows they sort of tried to develop characters, but c'mon, that's not enough. Or in Crysis, there's a part where your squad leader Prophet gets kidnapped by aliens, but the man has absolutely no details about his personality or life to make his abduction matter to me. One that really irked me was Bioshock. I noticed the only detail given about the main character was him reminiscing over an old photo, saying, “Y'know, they always told me, 'Son, you're destined to be something great.' And you know what? They were right.” Then the plane crashes and all hell breaks loose, and later in the game I'm somehow supposed to care when it turns out that Atlas brainwashed you into believing you had a former life to begin with. Guess what: I didn't care. I thought it was stupid and the only reason I kept playing was cause the graphics were pretty and I got to live out an interactive power fantasy of blowing up stuff. I feel like we're in an age where games have this amazing technology, but it's in the hands of a bunch of bad directors.

It would be one thing if these games were abstract and nonsensical like Doom. I'd even go along with it if they were farcical and self deprecating like Duke Nukem 3D or Lo Wang: Shadow Warrior. But they're completely pretentious, humorless, and take themselves seriously like they've earned my emotional investment when they haven't. I don't emotionally care about any of it. It's just a CG-rendered fireworks show; a power fantasy where I blow up stuff, but it carries the pretense of, “Oh, you should care about this as more than a high score and the next head shot.” It's a lot like the recent Transformers movie, except you can interact with it.

The only games I can think of that accomplish what I'm talking about are most of the 3D Zelda games. The characters are endearing enough to make me care.

There are also a lot of recent games that may have accomplished this, but I haven't played them so I don't know. Examples: Mass Effect 1 & 2, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2.

I also have to admit some games get by because they focus more on atmosphere, setting, and plot instead of characters. Examples: Metroid Prime, Half Life 2, Fallout 3, Resident Evil 4.

Basically that's why I don't want a new generation of gaming consoles after the PS3 and XBOX 360. If the end result of all these graphical updates is to play games that are visually indistinguishable from films, I think they need to figure out how to better harness what they've already got before they move onto something more powerful. I want better characters in the storylines of games before we move on to better graphics. I'll play anti-film games like Metal Slug and Contra while I wait for that.

[Luke]

Great rant, regardless if I agree with you or not. Solid points.
If you haven't already, read this post from JT:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18786

[stickem]

cliff notes please...

[Luke]

cliff notes please...

He doesn't want a next gen of gaming consoles.

I accept paypal.

[stickem]

cliff notes please...

He doesn't want a next gen of gaming consoles.

I accept paypal.

paypal sent.

i've been gaming since pong and i agree with you on some games, but for me every generation that passes has me playing less and less of the last generation. probably of the ten or so consoles i got are for nostalgic reasons only. but that's just me.

[Hatta]

Sounds to me like you just want better writing. I think we can all agree on that. Given that the video game industry is bigger than the film industry, we should be getting better writing than we are.

[Hobie-wan]

I'm not as stuck on needing them to be as movie-like in the plot department as the graphics, but I see what you mean. It certainly would be nice to care about the characters more as they would provide a richer experience. I don't think its absolutely necessary though as the escapism is sometimes enough with the highly polished visuals. More depth would certainly be welcome.

I also have to admit some games get by because they focus more on atmosphere, setting, and plot instead of characters. Examples: ...Half Life 2.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. Granted you don't get a lot of back information on Gordon from either of the games even though it is intended that you are Gordon. I did learn enough to care about Eli and Alyx and when the fit hit the shan a few times in episode 2, you bet I felt bad for them.

[REPO Man]

*hits OP w/ mallet*

You'll get a next generation of consoles and LIKE IT!!!

I mean, the Super NES was once the "next generation". The Saturn was once the "next generation". The Nintendo 64 was once the "next generation". And soon, the 360, PS3 and Wii will be "retro", and then by the laws of logic, we'll gush over the old days of Halo 3 and seizure-inducing bullet hell shmups and bitching about playing old Genesis games on a modern-day Wifi-enabled VR Helmets with direct though control.

So friggin nut up you little random-four-letter-word individual.

Personally, I love gaming in general. Sooooo... for every hot, next-gen title, there are at least THOUSANDS of classic titles.

And with the rate that technology evolves now, the next generation will have upgradeable parts.

[noiseredux]

alright. I'm gonna keep it brief. If I wanna watch a movie, I'll watch a movie. If I want to play a game, I'll play Final Fantasy VI. Not X. Cuz X is a boring ass movie.

[benderx]

I was planning to buy an xbox 360, but I didn't find anything interesting except left 4 dead series and pac-man CE. I notice that most xbox 360 games are on PS3, which is fine for me. I don't care about Halo series, Gears of war, masseffect. So what if i'm missing out, its just a little.